Trust, Intimacy, and Execution in Coaching Practice

Adedayo Ogunleye*
Adedayo Ogunleye Business Coaching Academy (AOBC), Oyo State, Nigeria.
Periodicity:May - August'2025

Abstract

This study examines the roles of trust, intimacy, and execution in enhancing coaching effectiveness, based on insights from 15 professional coaches and 30 coachees. It aims to identify best practices that contribute to successful coaching relationships and outcomes. The main objectives are to understand how trust shapes coaching relationships and outcomes, exploring intimacy's impact on client engagement, assessing effective coaching execution strategies and barriers, and formulating best practices to enhance client satisfaction. Using a mixed-methods approach, qualitative data were gathered from semi-structured interviews and analyzed thematically, highlighting trust as foundational to coaching (moderately correlated with outcomes, r = 0.68, p < 0.01) and intimacy as crucial for engagement (strongly correlated with progress, r = 0.72, p < 0.01). Quantitative data from questionnaires showed that structured execution significantly outperformed barriers (t(44) = 4.13, p < 0.01). Findings recommend fostering trust through openness and feedback, enhancing focus and agency with structured plans, and building intimacy by creating a respectful, empathetic environment. These best practices align with principles in Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman and Martin Seligman's positive psychology framework. Future research should further validate these findings across larger, diverse samples and varied coaching contexts.

Keywords

Coaching Effectiveness, Intimacy, Execution Strategies, Professional Development, Emotional Connection.

How to Cite this Article?

Ogunleye, A. (2025). Trust, Intimacy, and Execution in Coaching Practice. i-manager’s Journal on Humanities & Social Sciences, 5(2), 1-12.

References

[1]. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. Macmillan.
[3]. Brown, B. (2015). Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way we Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. Penguin.
[4]. Colquitt, J. A., Scott, B. A., & LePine, J. A. (2007). Trust, trustworthiness, and trust propensity: A meta-analytic test of their unique relationships with risk taking and job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(4), 909-927.
[5]. Covey, S. M., & Merrill, R. R. (2006). The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything. Simon and Schuster.
[6]. Doran, G. T. (1981). There's a SMART way to write management’s goals and objectives. Management Review, 70(11), 35.
[8]. Egan, G. (2010). Exercises in Helping Skills: A Manual to Accompany the Skilled Helper, a Problem- management and Opportunity-development Approach to Helping. Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.
[9]. Gibb, J. R. (1991). Trust: A New Vision of Human Relationships for Business, Education, Family, and Personal Living. The Guild of Tutors Press.
[12]. Kolb, D. A. (2014). Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. FT Press.
[15]. Palmer, S., & Szymanska, K. (2014). Cognitive behavioural coaching: An integrative approach. In Handbook of Coaching Psychology (pp. 86-117). Routledge.
[19]. Stewart, I., & Joines, V. (1987). TA Today: A new Introduction to Transactional Analysis. Lifespace Publication, Nottingham.
[21]. Whitmore, J. (2010). Coaching for Performance: Growing Human Potential and Purpose: The Principles and Practice of Coaching and Leadership. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
If you have access to this article please login to view the article or kindly login to purchase the article

Purchase Instant Access

Single Article

North Americas,UK,
Middle East,Europe
India Rest of world
USD EUR INR USD-ROW
Pdf 35 35 200 20
Online 15 15 200 15
Pdf & Online 35 35 400 25

Options for accessing this content:
  • If you would like institutional access to this content, please recommend the title to your librarian.
    Library Recommendation Form
  • If you already have i-manager's user account: Login above and proceed to purchase the article.
  • New Users: Please register, then proceed to purchase the article.